Fruits basket: family reunion
by FruitAngel99
Summary: Chiyo Sohma is the daughter of Kyo and Tohru Sohma, she has never met her relatives, until her parents announce their idea for a family reunion. When it goes through, she expects the worst. What she didn't expect was to fall in love. But a lot is standing in her way, and Chiyo will have to overcome them if she wants her dream to become a reality.
1. The beginning!

**Well this is the first chapter! I hope you enjoy! :) (Also, there's a bit of spoilers concerning the couples, so if you haven't finished the manga just know there will be a couple of spoilers awaiting you.)  
**

Hi! My name is Chiyo Sohma. I doubt you know a lot about me, but I can bet you know a lot about my parents. I'm the daughter of Kyo and Tohru Sohma. I would tell you their story, but really, this story isn't about them.

It's about the next generation of Sohmas. Sure we don't live under the zodiac curse but that doesn't mean we never had drama of our own. Oh no. We had plenty.

Our story starts with an idea. "A family reunion!" My dad announced at the dinner table one night. I gave him a questioning look.

"A what…?" I said slowly.

"I think we should get the family together! I mean all the Sohmas!" I had to admit, it was a good idea. I couldn't remember the last time I saw my relatives. My mom thought it was a fantastic idea.

"What a wonderful idea! We could meet at the Sohma estate," she said excitedly.

"We'll get to see Yuki and Ayame, right?" My brother, Jiro, asked. Jiro had short orange hair and reminded me of my dad. I, however, had long brown hair, resembling my mom. He was seventeen, one year older than me.

"Yup. We'll get to see that dirty rat," My dad said with a grin.

"Kyo, you shouldn't call him that anymore. You two are good friends!" My mother said quickly.

"So what? Who says we can't have a good fight or two." Tohru sighed but smiled a little. "So it's a deal. Let's try to get our whole family together!"

It was a long process, calling all the Sohmas and finding a date everyone could accommodate to. Eventually we found one. My dad told me it would be on July seventh.

I didn't know then, but that day would change everything.

Two months later, we were in a van, going to the Sohma estate. I had to admit, I was kind of dreading the experience. I knew some of my family members were a bit… different. How would they act this time around? I wondered if there would be anybody my age. I doubted it. Most family reunions it was all older people. However I kept my hopes high, hoping I would be proven wrong.

When my family reached the Sohma estate I realized we were the first ones there. "Alright guys let's set up!" My dad said happily. We brought out the tables and chairs and set up outside. It was a beautiful summer day and I was beginning to think that maybe things wouldn't be so bad.

First it started with Ayame (we never gave them titles like "grandpa" or "Aunt." Our timeline was so confusing that we just skipped that part.)Before the family reunion I had never realized how strange Ayame was. "KYO!" He shouted gleefully as he rushed over to us. His wife, Mine, walked behind him. Jiro walked off to greet them while I went to the side. I decided watching would be better.

"GAH GET OFF!" My dad yelled. Ayame was hugging him. I couldn't help but smile a bit. Ayame didn't seem so bad. I turned around when I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. It was a boy with short silver hair.

"Hello." He smiled at me and I politely smiled back. "My name is Riku. What's yours?"

"I'm Chiyo."

"You're pretty cute, you know."

"HEY!" I heard Jiro yell. He ran over and pushed Riku out of the way.

"What was that for?" Riku asked, confused.

"Don't get so close to my sister!" I rolled my eyes. My brother could be so aggravating sometimes!

"Jiro it's okay, really." He didn't pay attention to me.

"Oh Riku," a boy popped out of nowhere and grabbed Riku's shoulder. "Flirting with girls? I have rubbed off on you, haven't I?" The boy had jet black hair and a cute little smile. I was sure I knew who this boy was related to. It must have been Shigure Sohma. Sure enough, I could see him and his wife, Akito, walking up to my parents.

"I wasn't flirting."

"He wasn't!" Jiro still looked angry.

"You guys need to stay away from Chiyo!" Jiro said furiously.

"Jiro I can handle myself!" The boy walked over to Jiro.

"Hey don't worry; I'll keep Riku in line." Jiro didn't look convinced. I wasn't either.

More people came, and I was far from having a good time. I thought at least a few of my relatives would be normal. I was far from right. I began to wonder if there was one normal person in my family.

After a few minutes of making small talk with some of the parents, I walked away from the crowd and took a walk. After a few minutes of walking, I found the perfect spot. Lush green grass surrounded the field, and I was immediately taken in its beauty. I lay down on the ground, closed my eyes, and smiled. This was what I had wanted, just some peace and quiet. This was truly perfect.

But perfect never lasts for long.

"Feels nice, doesn't it?" I opened my eyes and saw a boy my age staring at me. Embarrassed, I sat up. "You don't have to ruin your good time just because I'm here."

"I don't mind." I smiled at him. He seemed normal. The boy had black and white hair, and I knew immediately that this boy must have been the son of Hatsuharu Sohma. However, I didn't want to guess wrong, so I asked.

"Is Hatsuharu Sohma your father?"

"Yeah, how did you know that?"

"Blame my parents. They have told me every bit of detail about the Sohma family. Anyway, I'm Chiyo Sohma. Nice to meet you." He nodded.

"I'm Ryo Sohma. And… let me think…" He squinted his eyes and I wondered why. "Your parents must be Kyo and Tohru."

"Correct!" Ryo grinned with satisfaction. Inside I was happy. This guy seemed perfectly normal. Just the kind of relative I had hoped to meet. My thoughts were broken at the sweet smell of food.

"They must have lunch prepared. Race you back."

"I accept your challenge."

"Ready? 3...2...1... go!" They hurriedly ran back to the others.

I was accepted with a glare from Jiro. He didn't like the fact that I had hanged out alone with a boy. I told him to buzz off. He didn't like that either. At lunch we were both silent, showing no emotion to the other. Takuya and Riku seemed to notice this, as they were sitting across from us at the table. "Hey Chiyo, I have to agree, your brother is a little over protective," Riku put in.

"I didn't ask for your input, but you're right. He is." I said the last words with spite. I got up and went for seconds. I ran into Ryo along the way.

"Hey, sad you lost the race?" I asked with a smirk. He didn't say anything, and instead gave me a glare.

"I will win next time."

"Don't bet on it." We were silent as we chose our food.

"Do you like family reunions?" He asked after a few minutes.

"Um… well, this one seems a bit crazy." I said honestly. "But this is the first one I've ever been to."

"Me too. I'm not sure I like it. Do you like Riku and Takuya?"

"They seem nice…. From first impressions I have the feeling they are perverts… No offense to them or anything… but because of that I don't know if I want to hang out with them. Cause, you know, they might have perverted thoughts and such…"

"Don't worry. I'll protect you." I smiled at him. I didn't care if what Jiro said, Ryo was a guy I wanted to get to know better.

When we got back Jiro gave me another look. I shrugged it off and ignored him. That was when I noticed two others that had arrived. I figured they were at least three years younger than me and they looked like brother and sister. The sister had golden orange hair while the brother had light brown hair. I knew immediately that they were the children of Kisa and Hiro Sohma. "Hello," I said courteously. They looked at me.

"Hi…" the girl said shyly.

I'm Chiyo. What's your name?" I asked.

"Rika…" She looked down at her lunch.

"She's really shy," the brother said almost apologetically. "I'm Shiro." I nodded and started to eat again. There was silence between the three of us, and I couldn't help but think Shiro was shy as well.

After a half an hour my dad yelled for everyone's attention. "You know what time it is?" I wondered what was going on. "It's time for baseball!"

"Oh no…" I groaned. Playing baseball with these people was going to certainly be something… and probably not too good. How could I possibly deal with this?

**Next chapter I'll introduce more of the sohma children and get to know some of the others already introduced. This will be fun! muwhahaha! :)**


	2. baseball, fights, and a new game

**A new chapter! Sorry I haven't updated sooner, been busy.**

The baseball game was to be kids versus adults. I asked if some of the adults would come onto our team, but Takuya cut me off and said we didn't need any adults. I thought he was insane. However the rest of the team agreed with Takuya (except for Shiro and Rika, but they weren't really talking at the moment.) That was when I realized something. We didn't have enough players. "We don't have enough players…" The adults realized this truth about their own team.

This problem was quickly ended, however, when Yuki and Machi arrived. They had two children, a boy and a girl. I could see the girl had a strong resemblance to Yuki, as she had short silver hair. The boy had short brown hair, like Machi. "HEY RAT BOY!" I heard my father yell. "It's about time you showed up! We're going to play baseball! You better play too!"

"What team are you on?" Yuki asked.

"It's adults versus kids."

"…why are you with the adults then?"

"Why you little…"

"That's enough you two!" Tohru intervened. "Let's just play some baseball." She walked away, but I could tell she was watching them out of the corner of her eye.

"Looks like we can play now," Jiro said, slight happiness in his voice. I sighed.

"I guess so…"

"You don't like baseball Chiyo?" Ryo asked. I looked at him.

"I don't mind it. It's just… this will probably turn out badly." Riku walked over to me.

"Don't fret; I'm sure it will turn out just fine." Ryo frowned and I wondered why. "And you know, afterwards…" I realized just how close he was getting to me. "We can…" He didn't get to say anymore. Ryo and Jiro pushed him aside at the same time.

"You better not try to say anything like that to my sister again!" Jiro yelled angrily. The adults looked over to us and I knew I was getting red.

"Let's play baseball!" I basically screamed, trying to get the attention off my brother. The adults nodded slowly.

"You guys want to start?" Yuki asked.

"Yeah. We'll make the batting order." Immediately I dragged them all away and took control of the situation.

Five minutes later we were ready to go. "Takuya, you go first." I instructed, looking at my paper. He nodded and went up to bat. I went up to the children I had seen earlier and introduced myself.

"My name is Yuu." The boy said.

"I'm Yumi. It's nice to meet you," the girl said. I smiled at her. Yumi watched Takuya. "I like baseball… it's fun." I nodded.

"It is." Looking at Shiro and Rika, I whispered to Yumi. "Could you try to warm them up to us a little bit? They're pretty shy."

"Sure." Yumi dragged her brother along. I turned back to watch Takuya and saw that he was on first base.

"Alright, go up Riku." Riku grinned and went up. Ryo walked up to me.

"You should avoid him. He's kind of…"

"Say no more, I get the message. He's a pervert that I should definitely evade, especially considering the scene Jiro made." I made sure Jiro could hear the last bit. He glared at me.

"Look I was doing what had to be done."

"Jiro, it was embarrassing and everybody noticed…. Look let's talk about this after the reunion is over." I heard the bat hit the ground and I looked to see what had happened. I was shocked to see the ball fly into center field. The person there, Kisa, was desperately trying to see it. The blinding sun didn't help with what. I watched as the ball landed on the ground. Kisa grabbed it and threw it to the second baseman, who was Ayame. Takuya let out a triumphant yell as he crossed the plate and made a home run. Riku himself was stuck at first. "That was good."

"Yeah, Riku's good at baseball." Takuya said as he walked back. Jiro poked me.

"You know, this reunion isn't going to be over for about two weeks. I'm surprised you don't want to talk about it sooner. It's not like you." I nearly jumped. Two weeks? Why hadn't I heard about this?

"You're joking!" I said. "This reunion is two weeks long?"

"Yeah, where have you been?" Takuya said. "Chiyo, call up another person to bat." Still shocked from the news, I glanced at the paper. I was up next. I handed it to Takuya. He got the message and I grabbed a bat. I wasn't that great at baseball or any sport for that matter, so I suspected I would strike out. I walked up to the plate. My dad, who was pitching, smiled at me. I figured he wouldn't go easy on me, he didn't usually. Though he did have his moments where he would. I lifted the bat and stared at the ball.

"You can beat them Chiyo!" I was surprised to hear Ryo cheer. My dad threw the ball and within seconds I swung the bat. My eyes widened when I felt the bat make contact. I dropped the bat and started running. I barely made it to first base. When I looked over I saw that Riku had made it to third. I smiled proudly.

Jiro was up next. I yelled cheers to him. Unfortunately those didn't help much. He struck out. My dad bellowed a victory cry and I looked away. My mom told me my dad didn't always act that way, and I couldn't imagine a time when he didn't. Then again, according to my mom, a lot of the Sohmas had changed over the years.

"Chiyo run!" Caught up in my daydream I didn't notice Ryo go up to bat and hit the ball. I immediately started running. I slid into second base and barely made it. I looked around me. The bases were full and the next person up to bat would definitely have something to sweat about.

It was Rika up to bat. She slowly walked up, obviously petrified. She looked at me and I smiled brightly at her, hoping she might be encouraged. My dad went a bit easy on her, it was pretty clear. When he threw the first ball he threw it very slowly, but it didn't matter. Rika swung much too early. "You're fine Rika!" I yelled. She smiled at me slightly, but it quickly disappeared. My dad threw another ball and Rika swung again. She made contact. I watched the ball fly into the air and land in the middle of the field. I ran as fast as I could and only stopped when I had crossed the last base.

About an hour and a half later the game ended. We kids had won. The adults seemed a bit depressed at losing to a bunch of high school kids and went off to make dinner. Meanwhile, I partied with the rest of them. Wasn't really a party, we just sat around in a circle and talked about our amazing victory. "Rika you were fantastic!" Takuya said. Rika seemed embarrassed and looked away. Her brother smiled at her.

"Yeah sis. You were amazing."

"Really it was nothing. Shiro, you did some really awesome stuff too, like that…" and they continued on and on. I could tell they were getting out of their shell. I slowly scooted out of the circle, got up, and walked away.

I passed through the forest and sat down. I liked the peace and quiet. Then again, if I could have had just one person there, it would have been perfect.

"You like being alone, don't you?" Ryo was standing behind a tree, looking at me. "This will sound weird, but I followed you. I don't especially like lots of people around me."

"Yeah, I feel the same way. I'm not a fan of crowds." He walked over and sat beside me. "So your brother's pretty protective, huh?" I nodded.

"He's awfully annoying about it though. Someday he's going to push me to my limit… hopefully that doesn't happen too soon."

"Hopefully."

"You have any siblings?"

"Nope, I'm an only child."

"I see." We sat in silence. "Do you think they've left?" I asked finally.

"Probably, want to go back?"

"Yes." Ryo got up and put his hand out. "Want some help?" I smiled and grabbed his hand. He pulled me up.

What could have been great turned sour from there.

"What are you two doing?" Jiro was standing a great distance away, but he could see us. I scowled in irritation. He ran over to us. "Chiyo you shouldn't go anywhere by yourself." I knew he didn't really care if I went by myself, what he really meant was 'don't go anywhere with him'. That was it. I had dealt with my brother's pestering and his nonsense long enough. I walked over to him and slapped him across the face. I regretted my action when I saw his absolutely stunned face.

"Hey quit it you two!" I looked around and saw Yuu. This was a surprise. He walked over to Jiro and grabbed his arm. "I'll take him back. Ryo you can take Chiyo. They should probably be away from each other for a while." With that he dragged Jiro away. Jiro went, but I could tell he was despising me right now. The only thing I regretted was that slap. I couldn't simply feel remorse for wanting him to stop being so protective. I may have been younger than him, but that didn't mean I was incapable of taking care of myself.

When Ryo took me back I found everyone was eating. I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. My dad was right behind me. "Dad!" I said, surprised.

"Ryo you can go eat. I'm going to talk to my daughter."

"Okay Mr. Sohma."

"Don't be so formal. Kyo is fine." Ryo nodded and walked away. My father looked at me. "What happened with Jiro?"

"I just slapped him that's all," I said, like doing that was nothing special.

"You know he's just trying to protect you."

"I can handle myself. Tell him that will you?" My father sighed.

"Just… try to get along with him."

"Fine…" We walked to the others.

"What's going on?" Takuya asked. I ignored his question.

"Where's the food?" I responded. He pointed at a small table. "Thanks." While I was getting food, my dad yelled for everyone's attention.

"We're going to play a game. We want the kids to get to know each other a little bit better." I sighed. "So we're going to pair up each of you in groups of two." He picked up a piece of paper. "Come over here and you'll see who you're paired with." I walked over, expecting the worst.

I was paired with Riku. Jiro wanted to talk to my dad, probably to protest, but my father was conveniently busy. I looked around. Jiro was paired up with Takuya. Ryo was with Yumi. I felt a little jealousy creep up inside me. "You ready for this?" Riku inquired.

"Um… not really…" He laughed.

"Just know this is going to be a race."

"A race?!"

"Yeah. Your dad told the parents he was really excited about this." I groaned. If my father was excited about it then this was going to be something to freak out about. He usually made weird stunts for games like this.

"Now listen up!" My dad yelled. "You kids need to start off over there!" He pointed towards the forest. "Go over there and wait for further instructions."

A half an hour later Riku and I were led to a deeper part of the forest. I started to get why we were having our reunion here. This was a great place to have games and such. I looked up. It was getting dark. "Where are we going to stay?"

"Don't you know? This is overnight. There are cabins five minutes away." I stopped walking, stunned. I never packed. What would I wear? "Hey, come on!" The person who was leading us, my mom, laughed.

"Don't worry Chiyo. I packed for you in secret."

"How come you and dad never told me these extra details?" I asked angrily.

"We wanted it to be a surprise. It was your father's idea." I sighed. My mom had good intentions, my dad just wanted to do it for the fun of it. Most likely. After a few minutes my mom stopped walking. "Okay, so here's what you do." She handed me a flashlight. "Just keep walking. You'll eventually meet someone else. You'll get more instructions from there."

"Alright." Riku said.

"Good luck you two!" She said. Then she left. I looked at Riku.

"Well, let's go…" I said, still horribly confused. What was going to happen in this crazy game? We started walking again.

"You know Ryo's a really nice guy." Riku said unexpectedly. I looked at him. "Yuu, Takuya, Shiro, they all are. Shiro's just quiet and Takuya seems like a pervert, like me. Once you get to know them you'll find they're pretty awesome."

"Oh… okay…"

"Just throwing that out there. Also, Yuu wanted me to tell you that you're cute." I gave Riku a strange look. Riku just shrugged. "Don't give me that look. Give it to Yuu. You have an admirer it seems," he said teasingly. I sighed and looked away. This was strange; then again this whole situation was strange.

As we walked my present problem came back into my mind. Two weeks. Two weeks I was going to have to deal with these strange people. The only one who seemed part normal was Ryo, and even then I wasn't sure about his sanity. I needed to get to know these people. I looked at Riku. I figured he was the one to start off with. "So Riku, do you like your place?" He shrugged.

"My parents are weird but awesome."

"You're weird yourself you know." He grinned.

"Yeah, they rub off on me."

"Are you friends with all of the kids here?"

"I've known Shiro, Takuya, Ryo, and Yuu for a while. The only one I didn't know was you and your brother."

"Sorry my brother hasn't made the best impression on you, has he?" Riku looked at me and I assumed he knew what i was thinking. I assumed correctly.

"It's not your fault he's so protective."

"Yes, but I'll take responsibility for his stupid mistakes."

"Why?"

"Most of the time he won't." Riku sighed.

"So your brother is irresponsible?"

"Pretty much. And, well…" An unpleasant memory occurred to me.

"What is it?" He asked, staring at me.

"Nothing!" I said quickly. He didn't need to know my childhood. "Anyway, we shouldn't be too far away, right?"

"Hopefully." As we walked, I started to realize I had found a brand new friend. I wondered if he would become more than that.


End file.
